Grant Wood (1891-1942) was an American artist who worked in the style of Ridgeonialism, especially famous for his truly extraordinary painting "American Gothic". However, he began painting only after the death of his father, who adhered to the radical Protestant Quaker movement and had an extremely negative attitude to people engaged in any art. At first he worked in the direction of the fashionable at that time impressionism, but after traveling to Europe and acquaintance with the paintings of German and Flemish artists of the XIV century moved to realism, sometimes even emphatically plausible, in the spirit of Andrew Wyeth or Gustave Courbet. When he returned to the United States, where he lived quietly for the rest of his life, he focused on depicting the views, events, and people of Iowa in the 1920s and 1930s.
Woman with flowers
He suddenly became famous for his "American Gothic", although he was not too happy about this popularity and in general tried to talk less about himself and his personal life, and for this there were very good reasons, especially at that time. Wood carefully built around himself the image of not too educated and completely uninteresting American farmer, a typical redneck, with whom and talk about anything lofty will not get a chance, so journalists should not even waste time on him. He stated bluntly: "I am a very simple man, and there is nothing exciting in my life.
Springtime in the city
Even when Wood died, the mysteries surrounding his true life were not cleared up. His sister Nan guarded them as well as Wood himself, carefully maintaining the image he had created, and sending away all the journalists who came to see her. He was sincerely proud that she did not let anyone know anything about his brother, but all the secret still becomes apparent and it turned out that Wood himself was not too much in line with his invented image.
Self-Portrait
He was not a typical farmer, was not too fond of small dull American cities, in which, as some witticisms said, it is good only to hang yourself and sincerely believed that you can prove yourself only in the metropolis. And Wood had a thorough education - he graduated from the School of Design and Crafts in Minneapolis, Chicago School of Art and Paris Julian Academy. In the period from 1920-1929 years six times for a long time went to Europe, where he studied the paintings of the old masters and French Impressionists, so to call Wood "simple country boy" is not possible.
A perfectionist
Perhaps all these secrets and building the "right" image were necessary to hide his real orientation. He was gay, and at the time, even in America, this was considered openly reprehensible. However, there was an unspoken rule "don't ask - don't tell", and it allowed people like Wood to live without much fear of persecution and unkind suspicion, the main thing is to talk less about his orientation and to look like a "good American citizen" in every possible way.
American Gothic
His most famous painting "American Gothic" initially caused a wave of discontent - too exaggerated and grotesque were its characters, as if Wood wrote a caricature of typical American farmers from Iowa. According to critics, the people on it frankly backward - it's the XX century, and for them the main agricultural tool - a pitchfork. The woman's view is clearly dull-witted person, whose fate is only hard labor. By the way, her Wood wrote from his sister Nan, and when she learned of the first reaction of the public, she ordered to write another picture, where she would not look like a village simpleton. Wood fulfilled her request, but, fortunately, "American Gothic" did not remake.
Portrait of Nan Wood
The main character in it, however, is a man. Officially Wood painted it from his dentist, but all critics agree that it is practically a portrait of his father Mervil Wood, who was a man truly hardened in his Protestant beliefs and a real tyrant. One could not take a step in the house without his approval, and any art was forbidden on principle - once when Grant Wood was a child, he walked several miles in the rain just to return a borrowed children's book to a classmate. So the pitchforks are here for a reason.
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